How to Stay Fit & Healthy While Traveling as a Digital Nomad

Introduction: Welcome to Badass Digital Nomads, where we're pushing the boundaries of remote work and travel, all while staying grounded with a little bit of old school philosophy, self-development, and business advice from our guests.

Kristin:     You know, critics of remote work say that you need meetings and face-to-face interaction in order to get things done. But we all know that communication and community are two of the most important factors for success in a location independent lifestyle. So every time you listen to an episode of this or any podcast that you find value in, I challenge you to share the wealth. Take a moment to think of one person in your professional or personal network who might benefit from listening in. Then share it with them and tell them why. Doing this will help you absorb and apply the info that most resonated with you from the episode, putting it into practice in your own life while delivering value to someone you care about. And with that, let's get on with today's show.  

Kristin:    00:01:19    Hi everybody. Welcome to the Tuesday Live podcast version of Badass Digital Nomads podcast on youtube.com/digital nomad. And today our guest is Jason Pino. He is a 33-year-old dual citizen Australian and Italian won the citizenship lottery if I do say so myself. And he is currently traveling through Europe for the summer to avoid the winter back home on the Gold Coast of Australia, which was one of the first places I ever lived abroad in 2003. So we'll talk about that. And like me, Jason loves the surf, the sun, the outdoor active lifestyle that the Gold Coast has to offer. And he's also a foodie at heart, as you'll learn in today's podcast. He's also a health enthusiast who claims that the Mediterranean has the best food in the world, hands down being 25% Italian. I have to agree. Jason is able to travel the world as a full-time digital nomad thanks to many years of preparation.  

Kristin:    00:02:31    He first became interested in living overseas and working online back in 2015 after reading about the cashflow quadrant in the book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. So that's when he had the idea to geo hack his location, essentially living below his means so that he could save money and increase his net worth. And that's when he realized that he needed to have an investor mindset in order to achieve location independence and financial freedom. Jason has been to dozens of countries now and he's living his best life as far as I can tell. He's gonna tell us about how he makes a living online and his tips for working while traveling as a couple and staying in peak shape with his physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health while on the road. So without further ado, let's make sure I'm actually live <laugh>, I'm just gonna refresh here and then I'll bring on Jason. Yes, I am live. Okay, great. Here's Jason. Welcome Jason.

Podcast Interview:  

Jason:    00:03:36    Hey, how are you? Thanks for having me.  

Kristin:    00:03:39    So tell us about where you are right now and what are you doing there?  

Jason:    00:03:44    Right now I'm in Greece. What am I doing here? I'm basically eating as much food as I can and getting as much sun as I possibly can. The work side of things, you know, it's kind of lacking at the moment, just so you know, the internet situation in Greece isn't the best, but you know, you can manage to get on for a little bit every day and get a few things done and then get outside, get the sun, get the food. Just keep repeating until winter's over back home.  

Kristin:    00:04:08    Yeah, I have to say that I went to Greece last summer and it grew on me. It wasn't my favorite destination at first, but I did grow to love it. I went to Athens, I went to Santorini, I went to Napflion, which is where you are right now, I believe. But I definitely found that the internet was not the best there. The food was incredible though. 

Jason:    00:04:30   Yeah, Napflion, I was there last week now back in Athens. But yeah, n play's a beautiful little place you can, it's so easy to get everywhere. It's like one of the islands except way cheaper and much more easy to get around, more locals. Whereas the islands, they just get super expensive and I don't find them as enjoyable at times. However, the beaches are fantastic.  

Kristin:    00:04:51    So in Napflion, basically, which part of Greece is that located in? Because it's on the mainland, right?  

Jason:    00:04:58    Yeah, we're probably gonna say it differently 'cause you they have two names for it. Naan and nli. Yeah, I think Nath is how they say it and Nly is our English say it. So same, same. Yeah, it's to the west. And you know, we always hear of Italy as like the boot, whereas Greece, they call it the fingers. You know, there's all these parts of Greece sticking out to the islands, so it's on unlike the other finger. That's the way they described it to me. Two hour, two and a half hour bus ride west of Greece, of Athens.  

Kristin:    00:05:27    Okay. So can you give us a little bit of insight into your cost of living? Because spending the summer in Greece and Italy, which I saw some of your photos on Instagram from Italy and I was in Positano and the Amalfi Coast also two summers ago or three summers ago. And it was really beautiful but really expensive. So how are you and your girlfriend making this work, traveling in the Mediterranean during the high season while working online? How  

Jason:    00:05:57    Are we making it work? It's like Athens is probably the cheapest place to be that you're gonna get some good food, everything all round. So staying in those places longer obviously keeps the prices down. And we happen to stay in Sicily a lot longer this time round as well. Whereas those other places, it's kind of like a few days just to check it out and then move on. So the traveling between them does rack up, but like to save on the costs or keep the costs down, we, you know, we'll stay in places that are cheaper but still have all of the tourist attract. You've got the beaches and the grottos and the food and the culture. And that's what I found in Sicily. That's the first time I actually went to, oh no, second time I went to Sicily, but first time on the west coast of Sicily. So yeah, I much prefer that anyway. Like there's way less people in Pano and Novello and the coast. It's absolutely packed. I don't know where people go there year after year it's beautiful, but like through July and August it's just, I would stay the hell outta there.  

Kristin:    00:06:55    Yeah, I have to agree because I was there in July, which was during my birthday and it was incredibly expensive. I think our villa was like $700 a night <laugh>. So how much are you guys spending on your rent right now in Greece, which has a lower cost of living anyway, typically?  

Jason:    00:07:15    Yeah. This apartment that I've got here in Athens at the moment is 30 euros, 32 euros a night is so cheap, it's completely renovated. I've got all these electronic things on my door so I don't even need a key for this one. I'm right next to, you know, not directly in the center but kind of a little few suburbs out. But I prefer to be here because you know, probably lead on to some other questions later this time around. When I went through Europe, I was here three years ago and I lived here for about four or five months. I looked for CrossFit gyms, so I happened to have a CrossFit gym, 500 meters to the west. I found this suburb and found this place beautifully renovated. It's got everything, air conditioning, washing machine, internet, you know the works. Yeah. That's keeping the cost down.  

Jason:    00:07:58    That's how much it is. Now the ones in Sicily, I don't know if you saw on my Instagram, we had a place that we sat at for about two weeks and that was about 40 euros or no, it was 50 euros a night. And that one had its own elevator into the apartment. So it was a big one bedroom, it was, you know, like a penthouse, but not really. 'cause there were only three stories. And uh, yeah, it was a huge one bedroom, beautiful furniture, high ceilings, everything included. And yeah, the lift entrance went straight into the apartment. So I felt kind of bougie doing that right in the middle of the historic village.  

Kristin:    00:08:30    I love that because people traditionally think of Europe as a really expensive digital nomad destination. And so everybody flocks to like even Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, but you can get really good long-term rates even in Western Europe and throughout the Mediterranean. I mean, Greece, Spain, Italy, of course if you go to like Barcelona during the high season, then it's gonna be more expensive. But if you do like more of of a sustainable thing like you guys are doing, it's totally doable for anybody who's watching or listening. You can live in the Mediterranean in a beautiful apartment for 30 to 50 euro a night if you're there long term. So that is a huge, huge change from the $700 a night that my friends and I were wasting in post Donno <laugh>. So learn from my mistakes. Yeah, I wanna talk a little bit about how you have financed this and how you make money online.  

Kristin:    00:09:25    Even if you're not making millions of dollars a year or like seven figure, eight figure entrepreneur, it doesn't really matter. Just being able to cover your cost of living or have periods where you're making enough to save money and then you can kind of use those savings to fund your travels later on in the year. I think that's something that people are always interested in hearing about because it can be really intimidating to see stuff online. Like you know, that you have to make six or seven or eight figures to be able to be an entrepreneur or be a digital nomad and that's just bullshit. I am thinking also about how much has changed for you because you only decided to do this in 2015 and I was reading in your bio that some of the other jobs you had were being a bond cleaner, a property manager, a butcher shop cleaner, and a personal trainer. And now you are working for yourself while traveling. So can you tell us about some of the things that you have done to make money online, whether it was short term or something that has sustained you over the past few years?  

Jason:    00:10:32    Primarily it's been the chunk money and that's come from investments back home. So I'm working on like speculation and trading and pricing up different investments basically. And then when those pay out, primarily they're chunks of money. So then I have to budget that until the next chunk comes. And that could be 12 months, it could be 24 months, six months, I don't know. But that's primarily how it works. I have had some incomes that comes through monthly to do with other investments, but that covers a few things. The other thing I do is also kind of like mentoring, coaching and then also for friends and family and other people who know me well, you know, look after and help with their investments. So you know, I'm not a financial advisor or planner, you know, you need all those legal things, but I'm doing it for myself. People wanna understand it and you know, I help where I can and you know, they'll pay me to do that. So you know, I'm just using what I already learned with investing and then applying it and seeing if I can scale it up a bit more. And if anyone else is interested, get onto that.  

Kristin:    00:11:37    You said a couple things that I think are really important. First of all, that your family and friends and your personal network are a good source of clients. So a lot of people are wondering how they can get more clients through online sources. And one of the most effective ways of doing that is just reaching out to people who already know you, who, who already know what you're good at. And yeah, you don't have to have like a big ad budget or something like that. You can just, you know, reach out to the people that you already know and then build from there. And then another thing that you mentioned is that you know, you aren't licensed or certified, but you're self-taught with investing. And investing can be a really kind of intimidating topic. And I actually recently just had a call with a financial advisor where I keep my IRAs and he was saying that he has clients that are CEOs of big companies and they're really smart and they just don't even wanna think about how their money's being invested because they're so overwhelmed by the concept. But we're living in a time where information is plentiful and information is free. So what kind of tips or sources would you have for people who want to learn a little bit about personal finance and kind of take their financial future into their own hands?  

Jason:    00:12:53    So you just mentioned about the CEOs and people not having time, so I'll answer that. It's like people have their own life and their own job in mind. You know, like investing and I get this a lot as well. You know, people think about it and it's just the way it is. People think about investing as a part-time thing or as a side gig and it's like, it's not a side gig, it's gotta be a full-time thing. So I know that's kind of a bit difficult for people who want to just get into it, but I'd rather just be a bit more honest with it and say it's gotta be something that sort of like grows with you or you know, you develop into it. Which is how I started with, you know, some property investing and some property development and those sort of things.  

Jason:    00:13:33    So it's like you can't just go and be like a part-time doctor and learn how to be a doctor. You know, doing it part-time and then sort of be like, oh, you know, I'll do a little bit and figure it out along the way. It's kind of like you've gotta get a little bit more into it. So advice for people is like you put yourself into it and start to learn, especially about psychology around investing and you know how to manage your emotions and keeping track of the economy and the cycles and things like that. I don't know, I want to give something that's easier, but I would just say start studying, start learning. I looked at Rich Dad, poor Dad, see if those things resonate and if they don't, then find someone who understands it a bit better than you and that you trust. And that's why you know, friends and family will come to me because they've seen me grow over the last 15 years through the cycle of it.  

Kristin:    00:14:19    Yeah, I think that the most important takeaway there is just to start where you are and start small. Yeah. And there are so many apps and things now where you can have money that is saved automatically. You can like round up, keep the change, there's all sorts of things like that. So if you just set it and forget it, if you save $1 a day, you know, starting now, starting today, then what will the compound effect be at the end of your life So it can really add up even if you're not a professional investor.  

Jason:    00:14:49    You said it really well, you broke it down and just made it a bit easier for people. I'm thinking like people who want to get into the full-time investing and a lot of the time, and I'm, I'm getting it from a different point of view I guess is that they'll say, I wanna start trading. That's usually the main thing. And it's usually like younger guys, that's kind of how I started as well. And they just wanna start trading. I'm like, don't do it you, you'll just lose your money. But the options that you gave there, that's a much more simple and easier approach for people is just putting a little bit and just growing with it, compounding it. It's basically what you do with every part of your life when you're learning and you know, building yourself up business or your qualifications, you just keep chipping away at it.  

Kristin:    00:15:25    Yeah, definitely. And this is part of why remote workers have an edge. If you have the ability to decrease your monthly cost of living, you have either more disposable income or you have more money to save. And so that's why a lot of the time when you hear location independence and these other sorts of terms, it's going along with a financial freedom mentality because if you can decrease your cost of living from 10 KA month in San Francisco to one or $2,000 a month somewhere else without necessarily impacting your monthly income, then all of a sudden you can save more money in one month than you can in a year maybe of living a different lifestyle. And so you can actually make your money go farther if you're mm-hmm, you know, living somewhere else. But it also doesn't mean you have to move really far away.  

Kristin:    00:16:19    It just means thinking about things in a different way so that maybe you're covering basic costs that you need to have, but maybe you're cutting back on the things that just aren't necessary. So I would just challenge everyone to think about that. And you know, when it rains it pours. And as Jason said, in some jobs you're making a little bit amount of money every month and other jobs you're making money once per year and it's lasting you the whole year or some combination of those things in between. And I also actually dated a guy who lived in New York and he would sit in an office all day waiting for the opportunity for a specific type of trade to happen. And he made all of his money for the year in one or two trades that happened after sitting in the office for who knows, 300 days a year. And so that's a decision, like he liked that New York lifestyle, but if you are a trader, you can also maybe sit in your apartment in the Mediterranean for one month a year instead of sitting in your cubicle in Manhattan and maybe your quality of life will go up a little bit. So just putting it out there,  

Jason:    00:17:26    It'd be nice to be in that position. You're like, oh well, you know, we'll just wait around for it, look around the views and then set these alerts and make the trade, you know?  

Kristin:    00:17:34    Yeah, why not? Well let's talk a little bit about your daily lifestyle. And I get this question a lot. So people are always asking me about how to meet people as a digital nomad, how to date as a digital nomad. And being that I'm usually traveling by myself or in like groups, massive groups of nomads. Hmm. There's only so much advice that I can give, but what would some of your tips be for traveling as a digital nomad couple? Because you and your girlfriend are traveling together, you're working from home together, so how's that?  

Jason:    00:18:09    It's been pretty good. Yeah, we were together maybe a month and she's got some friends over here and family in Europe. So actually this week she's over on the islands, she's in Paris today with some girlfriends from where they UK And the travel part's good, like stay together for some period of time and then separate for some period of time. Like, 'cause otherwise you're in your each other's space 24/7. It gets a little bit unhealthy. It's not like you have fights or anything, but you just need to do your own thing at times. It's just natural, you know, she's away and then we're together again on Saturday and then I think she goes to the US to visit her family there and get back together again in Australia. So the travel's been good. I think it, you just gotta be aware of it when things are starting to get a little bit, all right, I, I need to make some momentum again.  

Jason:    00:18:56    I need to connect with the outside world a bit more then just make sure you act on that. I'm interested how you do it in groups. 'cause I, I've never traveled in groups once when I was younger with four other girls and that was it. I like, I've never traveled in groups and I don't have a lot of friends on the road. I'll have one or two and I'm like, all right, yeah, this is cool. But yeah, group travel, how, how do you get around it? How do you do it? Where do you meet these people? For  

Kristin:    00:19:19    Me, I think that group travel is a good way to meet a lot of people. And I've done group travel pretty much in the last year through Nomad Cruise, Nomad Summit and co-living. So there's group travel and group living just to make the distinction. Oh I see. So group travel can be very, very difficult if not impossible to get things done at the same time. But co-living is different because you're kind of, everybody's just in the same building or in the same house and getting into their daily routine. And so that can be pretty productive because if you have questions there's usually an expert in any sort of thing in the same place. So you can always ask them instead of researching online. But I take the group travel opportunities as either vacations or networking opportunities or just to have fun because I've been really unsuccessful at working and traveling with a group at the same time. And you kind of get those same dynamics. Actually I can see here on Instagram, one of my friends just joined the live stream and we traveled in a huge group, this is Stacy, we traveled in a big group in Croatia and we went sailing together with two boats. I think there were 25 of us and I was trying to work during that time and I just felt like a party pooper because I was always on my laptop <laugh> while everybody else was jumping off the boat.  

Jason:    00:20:46    I've looked at those before in the past, the like the digital nomad houses and stuff and I remember talking to her name's Rebecca, uh, she's on Instagram, Rebecca Georgia. I don't know if you know her, but she does like, I think she's got some houses in like Portugal and those sort of places outside or po I think it's outside.

Kristin:    00:21:03    Oh, outside. I've heard of them.  

Jason:    00:21:06    Yeah. And yeah, the herd places seem alright priced, but the other ones I'd ever looked at, they were just so overpriced for the area and maybe I'm just too frugal and I should probably go and give them a try. But you know, I'm getting this place in Athens for 30 euros a night. The same thing on those sites, probably like a hundred euros a night or 80 euros a night. And I'm just like, those things are just way overpriced in, you know, in my opinion. Yeah. Do you do those or do you set it up yourself?  

Kristin:    00:21:31    Well I have-

Jason:    00:21:32    I'm turning into the interviewer here,  

Kristin:    00:21:34    <laugh>, sorry, I have <laugh>. We're all learning from each other. I have definitely overspent during group digital nomad travel. I will say that Uhhuh living in Japan, my rent at a co-living space was like 16 to $1,800 a month. And going on something like if you join a hacker paradise or a remote year or a nomad cruise. Nomad cruise actually is different because your food can be included. But some of the other ones you're gonna be spending at least 2000 or $2,500 sometimes per week, sometimes per month. Wow. So it's definitely a different segment there, but if you want to get a big house and split it with a bunch of people, it can also sometimes be more expensive than if you just rented by yourself. So if you are doing group travel guys, I would recommend that you put somebody in charge of that because otherwise you're gonna have a big group of people in a Facebook messenger chat and everyone's gonna have a different opinion on the house and you just need one person to be in charge.  

Kristin:    00:22:42    So when I actually do relocation, so sometimes I relocate nine or 10 poker players together in one big poker house and I will only allow one person to be the contact person for the group because I've tried having like 10 people in my project management system and it is madness. So if you're gonna do digital nomad group travel, have one person set it up or try something like co life. My friend Vlad, Vlad Glebov, you can check, we had a podcast episode together on my show and he sets up houses all over the world and he does all the organizing and then people just join in and I think it's pretty affordable. So I think as the years go on, we'll see more group travel and living options that aren't gonna break the bank, so to speak. But that's actually a good, that's interesting. Oh sorry, go ahead.  

Jason:    00:23:32    No, no. Maybe you're gonna segue into the next part as well, but I think that, you know, it's a nice thing to get into and see is there any interest in the Gold Coast? Were you gonna go there or you had another question?  

Kristin:    00:23:42    I was, because you actually introduced me to another digital nomad who lives on the Gold Coast, who's Chris the freelancer who I'm now internet friends with. And so when I lived on the Gold Coast, I was 20 years old and it was like back in the day <laugh>, it was like 2003. And so there were no digital nomads. So I'm  

Jason:    00:24:02    Doing calculation how old you were?  

Kristin:    00:24:04    I'm 37. Really?  

Jason:    00:24:05    All right. You're just a few years older than me. Okay.  

Kristin:    00:24:07    Yeah. So in 2003 there were no digital nomads. But funny enough, I have one very clear memory of going to the Crocodile Hunter Zoo with my friends. And we were in our old car, we were in like an old station wagon and I had, I didn't even have a laptop, I borrowed her laptop and I was writing my paper, my college paper in the car on her like dinosaur laptop on our way to the Crocodile Hunter Zoo or something. And then we had Australia Zoo. Yeah,  

Jason:    00:24:39    Yeah, Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast.  

Kristin:    00:24:41    Yeah, on the Sunshine Coast. And  

Jason:    00:24:42    He was still alive then.  

Kristin:    00:24:44    Yeah. So now really old. But what is it like living on the Gold Coast now as a work from home person and yeah, what's the community like? What's the lifestyle like?  

Jason:    00:24:56    Lifestyle is everything that you could imagine for a surf lifestyle. Surf, beach, sun, you know, you're on the beautiful White Sands, gold Coast in particular is very heavily based in like activities and being outdoors and being active. And so I think there's three or 400,000 people is the whole population of the Gold Coast. Everywhere I look there's like a new gym, there's CrossFit gyms, there's movement gyms, there's natural mobility and yoga. There's just so much to do on the Gold Coast. So I like that aspect because I, I haven't seen that anywhere else in the world. Sure you can get a few things, you know, there's a few gyms in Bali who gets sort of going like that. But in terms of like how much physical activity you can choose from on the coast is amazing. In terms of the community of digital nomads, Chris and I tried to start one and he's got a Facebook group as well.  

Jason:    00:25:47    I think Gold Coast Digital Nomads or something like that. It's quite a few people in there. But the main problem is Australian visas. And you might be more versed on this than I am, but I don't know really how it works for other people. You know, like you said at the beginning in the intro, I got blessed with a Aussie passport and also an Italian passport. So I'm free to move between the, you know, two of them. But in terms of coming to Australia, like I think it's the best place. I even find it cheaper to live there than I do live in out here sometimes. Especially the Gold Coast. Wow. Food is, food is so cheap. Like here I go to the the the discount supermarkets and the food's still like the same price as back home if not more expensive. The food quality here is the best though. But  

Kristin:    00:26:26    Yeah, actually I  

Jason:    00:26:27    Australia that's the first question.  

Kristin:    00:26:29    I think Sydney can be more expensive than the Gold Coast, but I think  

Jason:    00:26:35    All big time you don't wanna go to Sydney, it's just visit and leave. It's expensive for rent. Yeah.  

Kristin:    00:26:39    Yeah. Sydney is super expensive. But I think what the theme here is that the longer you stay in a place, the more affordable it becomes. But the Gold Coast, yeah if, if you're there for a while, the good thing about Australia is that you can stay for up to six months. But one time I forgot to get my visa and I almost got turned away at the airport like deported because I was on a flight from Hong Kong or something and they got it for me in the airport. So I recommend making sure you have your visa before you go somewhere. But yeah, I think a lot of western countries can stay for up to six months. And then I've heard some people were able to get work permits or study permits or things like that to stay longer. So that's a pretty good amount of time and it's coming back, it really is like coming the California of Australia, right? Or the Miami of Australia.  

Jason:    00:27:32    The Miami, yeah, it's kind of like, yeah, it's kind of like the Hawaii, you know like through Y Kiki or Honolulu, not Honolulu but Waikiki or Miami, the Gold Coast area anyway except it's a lot newer now and um, that's what Beth always says too, 'cause but my girlfriend's America and she's from California and she says when she first came to the Gold Coast, she's like, yeah it's kind of like Miami or like Hawaii.  

Kristin:    00:27:53    Yeah, you, you see people like working out and stuff. Which I wanted to ask you about too because I have these really defined memories of, I used to live in Burleigh heads so I lived, that's where 

Jason:    00:28:05    I lived.  

Kristin:    00:28:05    I actually lived in Burleigh, Miami and Togan and I have these like this vision of the kind of, it's like a sidewalk that goes along the waterfront in burly heads. Yeah, yeah. And Esplan I would see people working out. Yeah, the Esplanade. So it's a beautiful spot. Palm trees, blue water. So I know that health and fitness are really important to you and also Chris actually 'cause I saw that he has a nomad fit channel. So how do you stay? He's gonna  

Jason:    00:28:34    Channel for everything. Chris, you'll never keep up. He's got like 10 different channels. Don't worry about him. He did, he did just open up coding. So coding with Chris I think something like that. Anyway, I was just talking to him yesterday actually. Yeah, no Chris is good.  

Kristin:    00:28:46    So how do you guys stay in shape while you're traveling? Is it just slow travel or are you doing some special diet or do you have like a certain meal plan or routine that you follow? Because an anyone who's seen Jason's YouTube or Instagram, you know that he's in really good shape. So how do you do it?  

Jason:    00:29:06    You asked all the questions in it so I could rattle them all off. I liked slower travel. I always look for a CrossFit gym near me now than I do CrossFit this year and end of last year before that I was looking for gyms around me. Yes Diet always looked at my health for, you know, since I can remember even more so when I became a PT 10 years ago, you know, so the diet is always on my mind. I just enjoy it. It's something that I do. And along with the diet is you know, plenty of sunlight always being active. If I stop being active I get pains in my back and in my legs and all this sort of stuff. So I'm always active and intimate fasting, the fasting helps a lot because you can basically eat whatever you want in that window that you want to eat and you know, you're pretty sweet. Like I've kept the weight off. I've just been lean for, I don't know, however many years you can scroll back on my Instagram. Like it's pretty much been the same except now putting on some more size and some more weight with my diet change and exercise change. So it's just part of what I do. I know other people it's more difficult for them, but I love gonna the gym every day.  

Kristin:    00:30:12    Yeah. So what is like a daily breaking of the fast for you? Like what's on your plates now?  

Jason:    00:30:18     So I was vegan for nearly seven years and now I started just introducing animal products again and that's like a whole other story and you can go on my channel and watch all that stuff. But now it's primarily just meat and I'm so glad I'm in Greece. Yeah, like today I broke my fast at two o'clock and I got four souvlaki. So they were pork <laugh> and then I had like maybe half a pound of chicken with, and I fried that up 'cause I had some leftover chicken. I fried it up with some butter and they do those really beautiful peppers here, the pepper onis. So I fry that up together and then I have a bit of bread and butter with it as well. Couple of pieces of fruit and I'm done.  

Kristin:    00:31:04    Wow, that's so interesting. So you and I were talking off the record about our vegetarian vegan past and I haven't talked about this publicly, but   

Jason:    00:31:15    I was strict vegan six and a half, nearly seven years. Not vegetarian, just strict vegan.  

Kristin:    00:31:20    Strict vegan.   

Jason:    00:31:21    But I think you were, I think you were vegetarian. 

Kristin:    00:31:23    Yeah, I've done it all guys. I was a raw vegan for one year. Oh yeah, that's in 2007 to 2008. But it was really easy when I live in Costa Rica because you have access to such cheap, plentiful, tropical, organic food. But then I moved to Nicaragua.  

Jason:    00:31:40    Were you training really heavy then? Were you exercising a lot? Because I remember seeing videos of surfing and you know, cardio, it's easier to be on the fruit and things like that with the weight training. I don't find it anywhere near as easy.  

Kristin:    00:31:51    No, I think, I mean I've always been really active. I've always been an athlete and I've always done yoga since I was 18. So I went from, I was a gymnast and then I went into cheerleading and then when I quit cheerleading and went to college, I started doing yoga. So I just fell into that and I got really lucky. And then living in Costa Rica, being surrounded by all of the health and wellness and holistic stuff I got into juicing and juice fasting and coconut water fasting and things like that. And of course a lot of remote workers and a lot of entrepreneurs we're always looking for a life hacks, right? Like we're always looking for things to increase our performance and our mental capacity and just feel better all around. And so, mm-hmm, the raw vegan lifestyle really worked for me at first because it was like a, a reset, like a cleanse.  

Kristin:    00:32:43    But yeah, I think if I would've done that long term it would have maybe evolved into some different energy and health inconsistencies. I don't wanna say problems, but I already did have that when I went vegetarian. So I did raw vegan and then vegetarian for like seven years and then now I eat mostly like all whole foods. Like right now I'm doing whole 30, but I would love to eat this way. What's whole 30 all the time? Whole 30 is basically like a nutritional reset where for 30 days you consume only whole foods, nothing processed, no grains, no dairy, no added sugar and no alcohol. So I'm feeling grain right now guys. <laugh> that's good because I haven't been drinking or doing anything. But I think I see a huge difference. So when I look, because now everything I do is on video, right? So I can actually see trends in what I was eating, what my lifestyle was like while I was traveling and what I looked like. Like how much I weighed, how bloated was I, that's directly involved with your sleep, your productivity, your mental health. Like it's all connected. And so I'm always wanting to know what other people are doing too. But I found that the best way is to just slow travel and try to eat healthy and lay off the alcohol because that will just, the older you get, the worse it is.  

Jason:    00:34:07    Oh yeah. I've got my glass of wine here, <laugh>, which is the two glasses of wine that I've had this week. Yeah. For like two weeks I just stopped drinking 'cause I completely forgot about it. Two other weeks, I think it was the first time like Beth and I split in our travels this time around and yeah she took the little coffee machine that I've traveled with and I've stopped drinking coffee for a week. I completely forgot. And you know, just all these little things just fall off it and keep going. I mean I got out of those, you know, the drinking and the coffee years ago and I, I didn't do them for five or six years especially. It was through the vegan time and it was like unhealthy and whatnot. So now I just know it's not something that you know, I have to rely on. I just enjoy the coffee for the taste. And in Greece I have Fredo espresso and it's the best coffee in the world. So I am gonna have all the fredo espressos that I want here. 

Kristin:    00:34:57    But it's so good.  

Jason:    00:34:58    I don't know anywhere else I can find those things. Fredo espresso. I don't know why they just, why aren't they in hot places everywhere in the world?  

Kristin:    00:35:05    I have no idea. And I'm just gonna tell you guys what it is. If you've never heard of a Fredo espresso, like I had never heard of it until two summers ago and my friend Carly and I were on our way from Rome to Positano and it was our first time going there. We were super jet lagged. It was a hundred degrees outside and our driver stopped for, no we stopped to go to the ATM and the driver got us Fredo espressos which are like these shots of frozen coffee with sugar and milk or cream in them. And he is like, oh do you want one? And we're like, what's that? And we took a sip instantly addicted like instantly we were like what is that? Where do we get it? And we just drank them the whole time. And I actually found some in Bulgaria last summer Indi and I was so excited. I sent her a photo of it and they should be everywhere except they shouldn't because then we would all just be drinking espresso filled with sugar and frozen cream all day.  

Jason:    00:36:01    That one is probably the Fredo cappuccino by the sounds of it. 'cause the Fredo espresso is just black coffee and they always ask sugar or no sugar. So I always get no sugar 'cause I like just pure black coffee.  

Kristin:    00:36:12    Oh yeah, well I usually drink my coffee black. But there I just decided to go with the with the flow because--

Jason:    00:36:19    Go with it.  

Kristin:    00:36:19    Yeah, they have a lot of like granitas there. So kind of like a A coffee ice cream man those are good. You can find them in some sounds that sounds like sounds coffee frappe.  

Jason:    00:36:29    These ones aren't frappes that they do here. They're literally, it's the shot of coffee out of the machine. Then they blitz it in the milkshake blitzer that you'd normally blitz like a traditional milkshake. Oh and then they pour it over ice. So they're just blitzing a shot of coffee and then pour it over ice and you end up with this head like this thick of the cre that they've blitzed.  

Kristin:    00:36:50    Okay, you're right actually I had those confused. The Alfredo espresso is the one that you can have it handmade and then they have the machines with the coffee cremas. They're like espresso creams that come out of like Mm-Hmm. It looks like one of those daiquiri machines or like a slushy machine if you've ever seen a slushy machine. But it's filled with coffee.  

Jason:    00:37:13    They love the coffee and cigarettes. <laugh>, we've gotten sidetracked on food.  

Kristin:    00:37:18    Well it happens.  

Jason:    00:37:19    I think that's what I was eating. Exactly. I think we're talking about what we're eating when we're traveling and exercise and all that. But yeah, last time three years ago on my channel I was vegan on my YouTube and I was eating all the fruit and vegetables and all the beautiful food here in Greece. And now this time I got to indulge in all of their high quality animal foods everywhere. I love it. It's been something that I missed for all those years and you know, I could just feel it. It feels really good. So it's so lucky everywhere there's seafood. Amazing.  

Kristin:    00:37:47    Well that's what life is about. You know I just got back from three weeks in Paris and Lithuania and on my live stream on Sunday, people were asking like, how were the croissants? And I was laughing 'cause I'm like well that's why I'm doing the whole 30 right now guys because I ate too many croissants. But you can never have too many <laugh> because I also saw on Twitter that nomadic, Matt was complaining that he gained 15 pounds from living in Paris for three months. So you just have to find your balance between eating chocolate croissants and you know, seizing the day and staying healthy <laugh>. And I recommend moderation.  

Jason:    00:38:25    So that's probably what people ask as well because it's like, I guess I'm not moderation because I'll, I'll eat meal over a kilo of meat a day, but I'm doing the intermittent fasting so that's stopping me from eating a meal in the morning. But I enjoy it 'cause I'm out training, exercising and that, you know, I've just got so much energy and then exercising every day like you are basically burning that off. Especially in the heat. I decided to walk everywhere. So I'm walking an hour backwards and forwards to this park that I'm going to until I get to my CrossFit gym again. I don't know the training, eat whatever you want. They have croissants so much. There's so many pastries here. You go into like you know the discount supermarkets and they're just full of beautiful pastries, good fruit, vegetables, everything  

Kristin:    00:39:05    And really cheap juices. There's really cheap smoothies. Oh that's right, you mentioned that.  

Jason:    00:39:09    Yeah,  

Kristin:    00:39:10    Yeah, yeah. The orange and really cheap at the orange Greek salads.  

Jason:    00:39:13    That's true. Big chunk of better on top. Let's go back to the digital nomads. People wanna learn how to get to this.  

Kristin:    00:39:19    We have some questions from the live chat so I will get to that. Margaret Manning from 60 and Me is here and she says she's joining late. But where in Greece is Jason living? And he's currently in, we don't know what to call it. I call it Naflon. Jason calls it. No, I'm Athens. Oh you're in Athens? 

Jason:    00:39:39    I'm in Athens.  

Kristin:    00:39:39    Okay. He's in Athens now a he was on  

Jason:    00:39:43     Yeah. Okay. On the Saturday, I'll say for a week. And now back in Athens for two weeks.  

Kristin:    00:39:48    Okay. He's in Athens And then I have one. Oh no, well we'll go to the live chat first.  

Jason:    00:39:54    Check your Instagram, press that live button on Instagram. Mm-Hmm  

Kristin:    00:39:58    See how long I'm looking at? Oh, press the live button.  

Jason:    00:40:01    Yeah, it tells you  

Kristin:    00:40:02    It says 1:56. Does that mean we're gonna get cut off  

Jason:    00:40:06    1:56 and we can't be hours

Kristin:    00:40:09    That means no, it's only been 40 minutes. Oh, okay. So that question was from Instagram. And then now we have a question from YouTube which is, are you on one meal a day diet, the Oma diet. And what do you think of prolonged fasting? Has this helped you with your focus concentration energy levels? Yes,  

Jason:    00:40:33    Yes, yes. Yeah, focus concentration, it's a difficult one because I came from veganism and I feel like it was just time for me to evolve from that. And if people wanted be vegan, do their vegan thing, that's sweet. You know, I was doing it for six and a half years but at that time it just felt like I needed to change what I was doing 'cause it wasn't serving me anymore. So when I made the change, I instantly felt a lot better because I guess I went with the how I felt so I can contribute it to the diet change or I can contribute it to, I just followed what I was supposed to be doing. So you know, I don't want to say, oh you know, vegans is bad and meat's good. It's just I was just doing what I felt was natural. So, sorry, what was the other question? 

Kristin:    00:41:19    The fasting,  I guess you have gotten the benefits from doing like one meal a day or fasting because  

Jason:    00:41:25    Yeah, I'll do two meals. You keep doing it <laugh>. Yeah, exactly. I started it when I was vegan 'cause my digestion was getting a bit clogged up with the amount of food I felt like I had to eat in order to get enough calories to sustain the exercise that I was doing. So you know, I started it back then in in June or July of last year and carried through until, you know, I'm still doing it and it's a lot easier doing it, uh, eating meat because the meat's more calorie dense and I feel a lot more satiated after the meal. And I think on the weekend, late last week I had to eat a few more meals and just felt like I had too much food. So the next day Sunday I just went back to a small window of like four hours. 'cause I had felt like that ate some fish, felt pretty good and left it at basically one meal a day on that day. But most of the time it's two meals, one at around 1:00 PM another at around eight or 9:00 PM and that's it. Yeah, sometimes a little snack in the afternoon, but whatever.  

Kristin:    00:42:18    That's one of the things I like about working from home is that you can eat when you're hungry versus eating when you have 15 minutes or 20 minutes to go on a lunch break or eat at your desk. So I think that's, yeah.  

Jason:    00:42:28    Yeah,  

Kristin:    00:42:29    That's good. <laugh>,  

Jason:    00:42:30    I completely forget my lunches usually take an hour these days. I don't know the last time I had like a 10 or 15 minute lunch. That's not good for productivity. But I don't really do that much in the day besides exercise and eat at the moment. So it doesn't bother me.  

Kristin:    00:42:42    You're in siesta mode. It's fine. It's fine. Do you have a morning routine? This is a question from Trader Walt in the YouTube live chat  

Jason:    00:42:52    Trader Walt.  

Kristin:    00:42:53    Do you have a morning routine?  

Jason:    00:42:54    The only thing, the only thing I do consistently every day for the past 10 years or whatever it is, is stretch. So I make sure I stretch every single day. Apart from that, it is what it is. So I don't have like one of those morning routines, you know, get up and write a journal and then meditate and all this sort of bullshit. It's just I have to stretch every morning.  

Kristin:    00:43:14    Cool. I do both. I do the journaling bullshit and the stretching or the yoga <laugh>. So this is a question I did  

Jason:    00:43:21    A lot, lot. I started doing it. I had it for a period. I did it for a period, but I'm like, I just felt like I was forcing it. I don't know if you, if you're benefiting from it, I guess you want to keep doing it. That's why I keep stretching because I keep benefiting from it.  

Kristin:    00:43:31    Everyone can benefit from stretching, especially when we're like T-Rex with our computers all day. Mm. And like hunched over. Okay. We got time for a couple more lightning round questions. I'm gonna ask you. Out of your dozens of countries visited, what is one of your favorites? Because that is one of my number one questions.  

Jason:    00:43:48    One of my favorites is obviously Greece. I wouldn't keep coming back here. I lived here three in a bit months. The only shit house thing about Greece is the internet doesn't matter what it is. The internet's terrible. Having said that, we've had a pretty good run tonight. It's, Hey, I'm streaming off my phone and this, you know,  

Kristin:    00:44:05    I'm in shock.  

Jason:    00:44:06    Yeah. So yeah, Greece and I do love where I live now Gold Coast. So out of all the countries I'll still go back to the Gold Coast. I did put Bali there for a little bit, but Bali's just, it's so filth. It's just filthy, you know, I'd rather be back in a cleaner place. So many  

Kristin:    00:44:25    People there. I, I just find Bali to be very, very crowded. It's very hot. Yeah, it's very crowded and it doesn't really motivate me to work. I would just rather explore on a like motorcycle or go to yoga or watch the sunset with a Ang and like go surfing. I don't really feel like working when I'm there and that's that. But I haven't been to Shang U lately, so I heard there's lots of coworking spaces there now.  

Jason:    00:44:51    Lots of coworking, lots of beach bars. I mean I'm going there on my way home just 'cause it's got a nice stop between there and Brisbane. So I'll go there for a week. I can't complain. And it's probably gonna be one of the major, like the places that Beth and I go because it's so close to home, you can get one flight there. Whereas anywhere else from Australia is like at least two. You know, to get even to Pettet, we've gotta take often two flights.  

Kristin:    00:45:15    Yeah, I actually just, uh, the dog is barking. Hopefully no one can hear that.  

Jason:    00:45:19    Atu is good and there a fan is good. ATU is still, you know, it's not too crowded there.  

Kristin:    00:45:24    I love Uluwatu. Yeah, I surf a lot or I used to surf a lot and that's one of my favorite spots except it's also really crowded. But so Bali to Australia is like The Bahamas to Florida. It's really close. Like the majority of the tourism arrivals in Bali. I just found this out recently, come from China and Australia. So there's that.  

Jason:    00:45:45    <laugh>. Yeah, it's like a five hour flight for most of us on the east coast, five to six hours. So it's the closest thing we've got. Yeah.  

Kristin:    00:45:53    Okay. One more question. What is something that you always pack with you on your work and travel trips that's not something really obvious, like your laptop or your cell phone?  

Jason:    00:46:04    I only travel carry on. I don't like to check anything in. This one's a A physio roller. Yeah, it's got a few little spikes in it. It's bendable rubbery, but it's really, really sturdy. So you just roll your feet on it, roll your arms, it's like a massage. You know those rollers you can get in the gym. Except this one's like a smaller, harder one. I can pack and travel, you know, lie on on the floor, like, you know, get your lats rolling out everything.  

Kristin:    00:46:30    Where can people connect with you if they wanna follow your travels and your crypto tips and or hire you as an investment consultant?  

Jason:    00:46:39    That's all part of it too. Yeah. Instagram's the easiest thing. So my Instagram is just my name with a dot between Jason dot Pino, I've got the YouTube, I'm not using it as much anymore, but it's still there. And I still post every now and then about crypto. I don't post as often because when you boil it down it's just noise. Like everything is noise on YouTube. And if I need to make a ton of videos, then I'm just adding to the noise. So it's not really like beneficial to grow my channel, but I don't know, I just wanna stay true to that. Well, maybe I can talk about the noise every day and just say like, this is all noise and just keep repeating that message every day, you know?  

Kristin:    00:47:15    Well, I think if you have something of value to offer, which is why you're on my podcast <laugh>, it's not all noise, but we do need to know what noises are, noise, because I've thought a few times also about giving up, let's say Twitter or something. But then every once in a while I get such a gem. You just have to manage how much time you're spending absorbing content versus how much time you're spending creating things of your own. Whether that's content or whether that's something in your business or whether it's quality time with people that you care about. You just wanna be in control of your life and expose yourself to the right content for the right amount of time so that you're not wasting your life basically. Like some people are spending eight hours a day playing games and looking at Facebook, so don't do that. <laugh>  

Jason:    00:48:06    Definitely don't do that. I spend too much time outdoors or in the gym. Yeah, that's where they can connect with me. Instagram, you can see all my photos there. And my girlfriend's a professional photographer, so she's usually taking a lot of photos and yeah, I think we just, we're off on Insta and that's our hour.  

Kristin:    00:48:23    Instacart is are --yeah.  

Jason:    00:48:24   Do we, we got through all the, yeah, we got through all the questions. You wanna, I felt like we had so much we were gonna chat about, but that just went so quick. 

Kristin:    00:48:31    I know it does go fast, but I think that's good for now. We can always do another one or maybe one live. Maybe I'll see you guys in person somewhere around the world. Anything can happen.  

Jason:    00:48:44    That's true.  

Kristin:    00:48:44    But thanks for coming in. So yeah, thank you Jason.  

Jason:    00:48:47    And thank you. Thanks for having me.  

Kristin:    00:48:48    And go enjoy your amazing Greek meal now and we will all be living vicariously through you. And thanks to everybody who tuned in live on Instagram and YouTube. We will see you again next week. And if you want more content on how to be a digital nomad, head over to youtube.com/digitalnomad. You can catch the first episode of Digital Nomad News, which is breaking news on technology, travel and remote work that went live yesterday. And follow us on Instagram, Jason Pino, and Traveling with Kristin, Asta Luego,  Jason.

Kristin:    00:49:37    Thanks for listening. Remember to leave a review and share this episode with someone in your network. And if you want more tips and advice on working remotely, make sure to sign up for my insider list at TravelingwithKristin.com/subscribe, where you can find links to download free resources like My Digital Nomad Starter guide. Of course, also subscribe to youtube.com/digitalnomad so you don't miss any of our weekly videos, Digital Nomad News or Live Streams. See you there.